Newsletter

Redistricting mess: Go with Map 1

HERE ARE three important questions that must be pondered this morning:

(1) What do people who live in Port Wentworth have in common with people who live at the Isle of Hope?

(2) What do people who live in Thunderbolt have in common with people who live in Bloomingdale?

(3) Why should these communities be lumped into the same Chatham County Commission and school board district (the pink-colored, boot-like district shown in Map 2 below)?

Give up? So do we.

About the only characteristic that these far-flung areas share is that everyone breathes and has a pulse. If there’s a commonality of interests between these two west Chatham boomlets and two sleepy waterfront areas on the eastside, you need a microscope to spot it.

Unfortunately, Chatham County’s legislative delegation in Atlanta is evenly deadlocked on two proposed maps (Maps 1 and 2 shown below) that outline the county’s commission and school board districts. Time is running out to make a pick.

A final district map, which incorporates the latest demographic data from the 2012 Census, must be approved within the final four working days of this year’s legislative session. Otherwise, a judge will draw the lines.

That must not happen.

Redistricting is a legislative responsibility. Letting a judge make the call represents a total surrender. Worse, it could stick Chatham County citizens with a horribly drawn map that no one likes.

There’s also the potential that every single incumbent county commissioner and school board member could be drawn out of their districts. Then the public would be left with a clean slate of candidates — and likely political chaos.

Both maps apparently meet the requirements to maintain black majorities in allotted districts under the Voting Rights Act. So that’s not the issue.

Rather, the issue is whether the county wants to be gerrymandered to lean more Democratic. That’s a bad idea. Keeping communities of interest together matters more than partisan politics.

Map 1, shown immediately below, does this. It features districts that are fairly contained and compact. While it’s impossible to predict the future, this map likely preserves the existing 4-4 split among Democrats and Republicans on the county commission, with the chairman, who’s elected countywide, as the tie-breaker. It generally does the same with the school board, although school board races are non-partisan.

Supporting this map are State Sen. Buddy Carter and State Reps. Ron Stephens, Ben Watson and Ann Purcell. All are white Republicans.

Map 2, shown at the bottom, features the horribly drawn District 3. It meanders from the waterfront on Chatham’s eastside, then north to the Savannah River and finally takes a hard turn west all the way to far reaches of west Chatham County. It looks a lot like the “boot” of Italy — except this map gives the public’s interest a kick. It’s also expected to give Democrats a majority of seats on the county commission and skew the school board in that direction, too.

Backing this map are State Sen. Lester Jackson and State Reps. Mickey Stephens, Bob Bryant and Craig Gordon. All are black Democrats.

The fact that lawmakers are divided politically and racially on the two maps isn’t a good sign. But it does reflect reality — this is how Chatham is divided demographically and politically.

This is one time when a picture tells the story. Map 2 has a district that runs from one side of the county to the other. Map 1 is the better pick.

If there’s some compromise in the air to keep redistricting out of the judge’s chambers, now’s the time to grasp it.